A user of a called telephony device receives a call from a network. The user of the called telephony device desires to screen the call before deciding to respond to the call. In one example, an answering machine is used as a screening device. The user of the called telephony device listens to a message being recorded by a user of the calling telephony device from a speaker of the answering machine. Where the user of the called telephony device is not located close to the speaker of the answering machine, the user is unable to screen the call as the user is unable to hear the message being recorded.
In another example, a voice mail system associated with a telephone network is used as the screening device. The user of the called telephony device receives the call and fails to respond to the call. The call is redirected to the voice mail system associated with the called telephony device where the user of the calling telephony device records the message. Unfortunately, with the network-based voice mail system the user of the called telephony device is unable to screen the call in real-time as the user of the called telephony device must wait for the user of the calling telephony device to finish recording the message before screening the call.
An Advanced Intelligence Network (“AIN”) provides for the screening of the call in real-time from the network-based voice mail system but requires altering an architecture (e.g. altering and/or replacing one or more switches) of the telephone network. Unfortunately, service providers associated with the telephone network incur significant expense for altering the architecture of the telephone network to provide for the screening of the calls.
Therefore, a need exists to provide for the screening of the call associated with a network-based voice mail system from a telephony device without material alteration to the telephone network.